Tiffany & Co. Kashmir No-Heat Sapphire Ring

The fabled "Old Mine" Kashmir sapphire deposit was said to have been discovered in 1881 by a traveler passing through a high altitude valley in the remote Zanskar range of the Himalyas. A landslide had revealed pockets of sapphire crystals, some of which were "as large as pigeon's eggs". At the beginning, the gems were easily plucked from sides of the slopes, but like many famed deposits, such as the original find of Paraiba tourmalines, the supply of "Classic" 1880s Kashmirs proved to be very limited, the area yielding little or no more material by 1887. Efforts to revive mining in the 1930s, at a slightly higher elevation, are said to have produced deeper bellied, darker-toned gems. Now located in a disputed area between India and Pakistan, the deposit is not safely accessible and, based on recent surveys, judged to be effectively mined out. Detailed R.G. Dun reports (later Dun & Bradstreet) housed at the Harvard Business School confirm that Tiffany & Co. deployed a representative to the "East Indies". He was active there in the early 1880s and for some time before. The firm mounted Old Mine sapphires like this one for American elites, including the 42 plus carat Vanderbilt Kashmir. Kashmir sapphires would also have been purchased by Tiffany through its office in Paris, then the global hub of the luxury gem trade.